Sean Bean plays the Game of Thrones

We talk to the star of HBO's new fantasy epic, Game of Thrones.

by Fred Topel Apr 18th, 2011

Sean Bean is a man of few words, and that’s what makes him such a badass hero, killer or otherwise tough guy. In a hurry after a presentation of Game of Thrones to the Television Critics Association, Bean commiserated with a handful of journalists. We got a good three questions in about the upcoming epic HBO series based on George R.R. Martin’s book.

CraveOnline: You did 15 months of The Lord of the Rings and you have 10 episodes a season for Game of Thrones. Does that compare at all?

Sean Bean: There are comparisons. It was the other end of the world, where we were doing The Lord of the Rings, and we were filming in Northern Ireland for the majority of this. They’re very different stories. This is a very edgy story. Everybody is having to watch their backs. I think George as created his own world, as did Tolkien.

CraveOnline: Is the magnitude of the work similar?

Sean Bean: Yeah, it is. It was for me, especially because, in The Lord of the Rings, I was playing Boromir and I was only in the first one, basically. But, for this, it was quite intensive and I started off quite intensively in the first six or seven weeks, getting into the part. And it was squashed into six months, so I was doing the same amount of work, in half the amount of time.

CraveOnline: This is television, so are there still really physical battles for you to fight?

Sean Bean: Oh, yeah. We choreographed that for weeks in advance, so we know exactly what we’re doing on the day and we can adapt to it or improvise. That’s all real stuff, and that was hard because that was in Malta, where it was nearly 100 degrees and we were all covered in leather in fur, so we had ice packs on. It was good fun. It’s great. It’s exhilarating.